Mavis

Mavis Staples

We Get By

Anti- Records

Mavis Staples, at 79, is a national treasure. Her new album, We Get By, is 70s-style R&B, soul, and blues as indie rock. Produced by Ben Harper, it's another fine one. She sings about not just love and life, but also her role as a civil rights activist. MLK recruited her and her family, the Staples Singers, to write songs for the movement. All those songs are now classics, like “Freedom Highway.”

The sadness of loss, in life and love, is balanced by a search for truth and justice, righteous anger, and the knowledge that the fight for everyone’s rights is worth it.

I would rather hear this than what’s popular, especially rap, with its slurs thrown around at gay people and women, and no one should be using the N word, even in an attempt to be ironic and post-modern.

If you want a better way to be woke, in the tradition of the great blues artists, this is the way to do it, with Mavis’s wonderful album.

Andrea Weiss